What happened

Shares of Eventbrite (EB -2.23%) were moving higher last month, after the event-ticketing specialist posted a better-than-expected third-quarter earnings report as revenue beat the company's own guidance. As a result, the stock finished November up 20%, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. 

Nearly all of the stock's gains came on Nov. 8 after its earnings report came out.

EB Chart

EB data by YCharts

So what

Eventbrite's revenue rose 11% in the quarter to $82.1 million, which was well ahead of expectations at $77 million.  That growth was driven by its Self Sign-On channel, which allows smaller companies to sign on for the service, and saw 23% growth in tickets sold. Overall paid ticket volume was up 13% to 26.9 million.

People at an outdoor concert with their hands in the air

Image source: Getty Images.

The company also took further steps to integrate Ticketfly customers onto its platform and expects to focus on the music business, which has been a pain point as growth was flat in the quarter. 

On the bottom line, its operating loss widened from $13.1 million to $22.9 million, and it posted a per-share loss of $0.36, which was worse than analyst estimates at a loss of $0.26.

In a letter to shareholders, management touted the progress in the Ticketfly migration and growth opportunities in Self-Sign On and international. Looking toward the future, they added, "Our core markets and categories represent a market opportunity estimated at over $3 billion in sales per year, and we believe there is additional long-term growth potential across new event categories, countries, and product extensions."

Now what

Looking ahead, management guided revenue for the fourth quarter at $75 million to $79 million, nearly flat compared with $75.9 million in revenue from the fourth quarter a year ago.

Eventbrite has clearly struggled since its IPO  last year, and a slow-growth, money-losing company is fundamentally unattractive. Still, there is ample opportunity in the ticketing space, as companies such as LiveNation have shown. As it puts the Ticketfly migration behind it, Eventbrite should be on more solid footing next year.